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4:15pm

4:15pm, September 9th

"Chase, are you home?"

 It was Mom. Thank goodness, it was only Mom and Riley.

"Mom, I'm right here." I eased my body a little.

"Oh, honey, you look so tense! What’s wrong?"

"You’ll never guess what's been happening to me today." I recounted my tale to her.

Mom had this distant look in her face, a glazed over expression. Her gaze wasn’t on me either, but somewhere behind me.

"Mom, you ok?"

"Yes. No. I don’t know, I just can’t imagine who would do this." She finally turned to me, and I saw a trace of tears.

"So you believe me?"

"What do you mean? I don't really have a choice. I can't risk NOT believing you."

"Dad didn't believe me. He said it was a prank, and that somebody just wanted to scare me. But then again he left before my laptop was shot apart."

"Your father didn't believe you? I wonder why not.” Mom’s voiced didn’t have wonder though. Did she know something I didn’t?

"Oh you know Dad, not believing anything unless he has, 'hard evidence and proof'. But even when his sons life is in danger?"

Riley had been just standing there, until he said, "Why is he doing this?"

I replied, "I don't know, Riley. He said he liked having the power, liked having control of people and their actions."

Mom asked, "But why you?"

I had no answer.

"When is Sergeant Daniels supposed to ask our neighbors and give us a call back?"

"He said, 'shortly', whatever that means. And I forgot to tell him about the phone call."

"What? That was pretty serious!"

"I know, it just slipped my mind!" I started to get agitated.

"How? How did you forget about that?"

"Mom! I don't know! But I'll tell him about it when he calls next."

Mom grabbed the phone. "I'm calling right now." she started dialing.

"Mom, he only left a few minutes ago! He won't even be back yet!"

She didn't listen and called anyway.

"Hello, I'm looking for Sergeant Daniels. Is he available?"

I approached Riley.

“Riles, did you accept a Facebook friend request on my profile without telling me?”

He looked up at me. “No, I didn’t.”

“You sure?” I gave him an eye.

“I didn’t, I promise!” He sounded disappointed that I would ever even think he would do something so preposterous.

“Alright, I believe you.” I patted him on the shoulder.

Back to my room. I went over to the window and gazed out. You could see all my neighbors’ houses from my window, and there were trees lining each house. I tried to reason where the shooter must've been, but I had nothing.

My cell phone rang.

I pulled it out. Restricted caller. I didn't want to answer it, but I didn't want to NOT answer it either. It rang twice, a third time. Finally, I answered.

"Hello?"

"I was getting worried that you might not pick up. I'm so glad you did."

"How did you get my number and why are you calling me?"

"Well, you can find anything on the Internet. But I didn’t find your number on the World Wide Web. In fact, I'm not going to tell you how I got your number, because this is much more fun. And calling you is the only way I can contact you, remember? Your laptop is hardly in working order."

"You’re sick, you know that?"

He chuckled. "Actually I'm not. My doctor just recently said that I'm in excellent condition. And my dentist commented how pearly white my teeth were."

His humor was not amusing. "The cop believes me. You're going to get caught."

"Ah yes, good old Sergeant Daniels."

How did he know his name?

"And I'm not going to tell you how I know his name either. The best mysteries are those that arenever discovered, am I right? Of course I am."

"You’re nothing but a power-hungry maniac who likes to screw with peoples lives."

"Well, two out of three ain't bad. I wouldn't classify myself as a maniac. Perhaps a little untwined, or a tad unwound according to some, but maniac is a touch strong."

"I'm hanging up."

His voice got serious. "I wouldn't."

"Why not?"

"...oh, trust me, you don't."

"Unless you tell me why not, I am ending this call."

Pause. "Do you like your face, Chase? Because if you do hang up, I will trigger the bomb that I implanted into your phone, and your cheek will be on the wall."

I yanked the phone away and prepared to throw my phone out the window, but when I looked out, I held back.

A group of ten year olds were playing basketball outside the house of our neighbor. I couldn't throw it past them, and I wouldn't put it past Unknown to kill innocent kids.

I put the phone back to my ear.

"Funny how things work in your favor sometimes,” came the malicious voice of my stalker.

I didn't answer. Instead, I pulled the phone away from my face and started to frantically search for the bomb.

I heard him laughing on the other end.

"You’re not going to find it, Chase! Nobody will!"

I gave up and conceded. "What do you want me to do?" I asked in a defeated voice.

"Nothing. I just want to make sure you know that I'm in total control of your life. You may hang up now."

The line went dead.